DoctorsDirect gets funding from Spark Capital

By Vivek Puri | October 10th, 2006 at 09:27 am ET         

DoctorsDirect.com today announced that it has received Series A funding from Spark Capital. DoctorsDirect online service enables consumers to conveniently book and pay for medical appointments over the Internet. DoctorsDirect was founded earlier this year and is lead by Tommy McGloin who had previously headed MapQuest.

To book an appointment through DoctorsDirect you can search for doctor by city and medical specialty or if you know the doctor’s name you can use the advanced search form. DoctorsDirect brings up the page for the doctor that has their Next Available Appointments, complete schedule of open appointments, Medical Specialties, Hospital affiliation, and Background. When you book your appointment DoctorsDirect will charge a ‘Convenience Fee’ from you and let you know the appointment fee that has to be paid after the appointment. DoctorsDirect currently does not accept insurance or submit insurance claims for their customers.

Doctors can get listed on DoctorsDirect for free. Since everything is web-based they are saved from the pains of installing new software. It might be still an issue for doctors to sync their desktop and DoctorsDirect schedules. The service is currently available only for doctors located in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Philadelphia and DoctorsDirect is looking to rollout the service into other areas soon.

I tried booking an appointment online and the convenience fee came out to be $15. Personally I feel the Convenience Fee is bit steep. When I use my insurance I have to pay $10 co-pay for each visit. I don’t really see myself paying $25 instead for a tiny bit of convenience. Another part I don’t really like is that the ‘Convenience Fee’ will be refunded only if the Physician cancels the appointment.

Links:
DoctorsDirect.com

Tags: StartupSquad - Web2.0 - Web_2.0 - Funding